Return to Shakespeare's Sonnet 60 |
4.
in sequent toil: toiling one after another in close succession.
5.
Nativity, once in the main of light: birth, once it is in full light. I think Shakespeare conceives of "nativity" as a process extending from conception to healthy infancy. This would be a natural idea, since birth did not assure life. Of the eight children of Shakespeare's parents, only four lived to adulthood.
7.
crooked: malignant.
8.
confound: ruin.
9.
transfix the flourish: pierce through the outward decoration.
10.
delves the parallels: digs the trenches.
11.
feeds on the rarities of nature's truth: consumes the most precious things true nature produces.
12.
nothing stands but for his scythe to mow: i.e., nothing stands upright that will not be mowed down his scythe. Father Time is usually depicted with the scythe he uses to mow down people and everything else.